When comfort becomes the goal, home can stay home.
When a resident's doctor and family decide that the goal of care is comfort, the resident does not have to leave Willowmere. They can stay in their own suite, surrounded by their own things, cared for by the caregivers who already know their routines, while a hospice provider chosen by the family adds the medical and comfort care that hospice brings.
Palliative support follows the same idea earlier on: when someone is living with a serious illness, our care team works with their doctors and any palliative care team to keep them comfortable, keep routines steady and give the family room to simply be family.
Our caregivers, nurse and kitchen team work alongside the resident's doctors and the hospice team so that comfort, dignity and routine come first. Meals are offered in small portions whenever the resident wants them, favourite music plays in the suite, and family members can stay as long as they wish.
Families often tell us they were grateful not to face a move at the hardest time. The resident stays among the people and things they know, and the family can focus on being together.
Our team also looks after the family in practical ways: a quiet place to rest, meals brought to the suite during long days, help reaching relatives and someone to sit with the resident when a family member needs a break. Afterwards, we stay in touch, and families are always welcome back for the spring remembrance in the garden.
If you are planning ahead, our Director of Health Services is happy to talk through how hospice and palliative support would work for your family, long before it is needed.
Those early conversations are often easier than families expect, and many tell us that knowing the plan brought real peace of mind for everyone involved.
How we work alongside hospice
Hospice care is provided by licensed hospice organizations, not by Willowmere. Families choose the provider, and we coordinate closely with them: their nurses and aides visit the suite, and our caregivers continue with daily living support, meals and company in between.
Our Director of Health Services meets the hospice team at the start, so the care plan, medication support and contact details are shared in one place. When questions come up overnight, our staff on site know who to call.
Before hospice care begins, we sit down with the family to talk about wishes: who should be called and when, which music or readings matter, whether a pet should visit, and what the family hopes the last days will be like. We write those wishes into the care plan so every caregiver on every shift knows them without having to ask.
Comfort, routine and the small things
In the last months and weeks, small things carry a great deal of weight.
Familiar caregivers
The same caregivers keep visiting, so faces and voices stay familiar.
Quiet surroundings
Soft lighting, favourite music and a window onto the garden or the trees.
Favourite foods
The kitchen prepares small portions of favourite dishes, at any hour.
Rituals that matter
Readings, prayers, music or quiet, as the resident and family wish.
Support for families
Families can visit at any hour, and a quiet family room with a sofa, a tea station and an overnight cot is close to every wing. Our staff will sit with a resident so a family member can sleep, eat or step outside, and the chaplain from the family's own congregation, or a hospice chaplain, is always welcome.
Afterwards, families are not left to pack up alone. We help with belongings at the family's pace and keep in touch in the weeks that follow.
Many families tell us the caregivers who stayed with their parent became part of the story they tell afterwards. Staff are invited to memorial gatherings when families wish, and the community holds a quiet remembrance in the garden each spring for residents who have died during the year.
Hospice support questions
See also memory care support and assisted living.
